


Veneer Peeled Back

by peoriapeoria



Series: Forged [1]
Category: The Dresden Files - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Punk!John, whammy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-10
Updated: 2013-03-10
Packaged: 2017-12-04 20:00:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/714517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peoriapeoria/pseuds/peoriapeoria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thorn manacles are bad. And then Johnny Marcone is tossed in too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

They dragged him in, no jacket, rumpled. I'd seen Gentleman Johnny a lot of ways but rumpled was new. He almost looked human, out cold and thrown in like a bag of potatoes. Yeah, these players might pose a problem. They'd gotten me, had a pair of thorn manacles and were able to extract Marcone from the Outfit.

He roused as I stalked around the cell one more time.

"Oh, I must have been a very bad boy."

Hell's bells. I turned, wondering just what meat puppet I'd been stuck with. It stalked me, sliding in way too close. He still smelled expensive, but he moved, like an unleashed tiger. Shit. Not a meat puppet, Marcone was whammied. Much more dangerous. I'd seen his soul, all steel meat lockers and gleaming organization.

No one did that without demons they didn't want let out. I stepped away from him. Apparently tenacious goes to the bone. He kept with me. It was getting warm in here.

"Are you shy?" Marcone stepped back. Stars, I needed a sweatshirt. "That's pretty." I wasn't sure what he was talking about but I didn't like it. I often didn't like John, but this was a new way to be adrift. I was a bit lost as he took in the room of our confinement. He's got very strong fingers. There had to be heat on the fritz.

"I don't see any cameras." He was back in my space, and moving beyond description. "So much man." I moved. Wasn't smooth, but I got away. This was going to be a long night. Day. Whatever, there were no windows. I was just going to have to keep moving.

"John, you have a spell on you. This isn't something you want to do."

"Oh, you're here. I do want to do; sort of like Mt Everest. Because it's there."

I wasn't sure how to take that. Umbrage. I was offended. He looked like sex on toast, skip the toast.

"Why us?"

That was Marcone. "They want to move on Chicago."

"They think this is a way to get my help?" I laughed. It wasn't smart, but I needed the release. The look he flashed me was even funnier. "Who are you?" He may have been a little worried of my sanity. No one said John was dumb.

"I'm Chicago's wizard. And you're Chicago's mob boss." I think the second stopped him more. "You took over Vargassi's organization."

I could see him thinking that through. It was scary, seeing Marcone loosely dangerous calculating the takeover a second time.

"They can't have Chicago." He stuck himself to me.

"How does this help?!"

"I'm thinking." He pulled away. "Something's wrong."

Seeing the gears like this, one realized how likely losing a hand was. There was nothing safe about the way Marcone thought.


	2. Chapter 2

I looked at Marcone, whammy gone like it had never been there, discounting the crease and extra starch he held himself with; that and standing just a bit further from me than his usual wont. Compared to the way he had wanted to be inside my clothes with me, it was like he was in a different zip code.

Needless to say, the bad guys didn't get Chicago or even our dead bodies, which really would have been part of the deal. Seems there isn't a lock Marcone can't best; his organization cleaned up the bodies.

"I don't like the way you're running hot then cold. I can get this from my shower." He didn't totally rise to the bait, but I think his eyebrow arched. Okay, so there hasn't been hot water in years. And then it hit me.

"You want me." Not just clueless punk Johnny with an itch to scratch, but Gentleman Johnny Marcone... Wanted... Me?

"I would consider it a favor if you would forgive my transgressions and forget them."

He didn't tell me I was full of shit, or any cleaned up version of same. "I'm not the forgiving type."

"As you will then, I must be going."

No, this didn't end like this. "You're too good for me?"

"On the contrary, Mr. Dresden." He walked away. It's the closest I've seen him to defeated.


	3. Chapter 3

I... Awhile ago Marcone was thrown in with me, when some upstarts with more resources than tactics thought to take over Chicago, after they put a whammy on him. It gave me an uncomfortable insight, even more personal than the soul gaze we'd shared on meeting. He didn't want me to know he wanted me; that hurt.

At least, it would have had he'd not been so dejected after whatever had been missing during the whammy returned. You'd think his puppy had just died. Eventually I parsed it out.

Unrequited love was a bitch, and Marcone loathed allowing a weakness. I knew and that was too much to be borne, since I didn't reciprocate. I didn't.

Shit. Maybe I did, a little. I don't get out much, that way, not that way but... I like women. I do, I'm just not very good at them, something like that. I didn't really have a handle on what had gone down with me and Luccio, and I wasn't stupid enough not to know Susan and Elaine weren't well, yeah. I guess I wasn't quite ready to own all of that yet.

The important thing was that I had a very limited circle of people that knew what I was and did, and could deal with stuff when all hell broke loose. Which it tended to do at least once a year. Murphy had been burnt by her two ex husbands and I just didn't do casual. I didn't want to be the kind of man that noticed Molly (see unrequited, it's a bitch) and pretty much everyone else I knew were the Alphas or guys. Some were both.

Marcone was the first mortal signatory. That was partially my doing. I know, it was totally right of might, but there were things slavering and proper channels had sort of broken down sometime two centuries ago. I chose him as a wedge to keep certain doors shut. He was a willing catspaw.

I missed the banter. We had a, snipefest. Had being the operative word. I wanted things to be back to normal. Did I really want to figure out what new normal would be?


	4. Chapter 4

"I'm getting Dresden." I didn't let Johnny give an order, I didn't look back, just walked away.

He'd done well enough right afterwards, he threw himself into business, used the anger and frustration against competition. It was when forces started towing the line, scared to give any offense, for then, that he had more time and started to unravel.

Not that you'd be able to tell. There was only so much stage-managing I could do. So, I would fetch the Wizard. It'd make an interesting redress of The Tempest, this thing between the angry white hat magus and the suave Mob Boss. I know, he's a businessman, but it is a trope. So is a Dragon and its George.

I drove to the boarding house Dresden laired in, parked in the gravel lot and went down to his door. I didn't like that someone so vital to Chicago's defense had such a poorly installed exit. I knocked.

"What do you want?"

Always civil, Dresden. "You, in the car. Get dressed."

He pulled the door shut with another grind. It creaked open again, and I pushed it shut after Dresden exited. He asked questions and I did my best brick wall.

"What the hell do you want, Marcone?" I noticed that his question shifted as he spoke, subject becoming object. On that note, I left.

Marcone looked like a parody of himself. I didn't like it. I didn't like that I had a part of that. I never wanted his love, I hadn't encouraged it. Being human wasn't natural for him, vanilla that he is. Mortal. He looked so mortal, lost maybe. All very subtle. Did it say something that I noticed?

Yeah, thought so. I did, as usual, the crazy thing and gave him a hug. Small word for such a thing. He fought it. I won. I did win, but that is his story to tell.


	5. Chapter 5

I had long known that Dresden would be a problem. I hadn't thought he'd go straight to the Full Moon Garage; bluffing for his life taught me Harry didn't do subtle. I was smitten. I was a monster and I'd fallen for a fire-flinging Hero. I didn't need one of Hendricks' Shakespearean plays to know it was doomed.

I settled for flirting with him; he can be semi-counted on to provide arguments against himself. Certain parties, now out of the way permanently, had thought that the me I had been would dispose of their Wizard problem and regressed me by magic. Not physically, it was rather like a hypnotist making an accountant cluck like a chicken.

I didn't want to see him, I didn't want Hendricks involved and I didn't want to have memories of pursuing him. I was intense as a younger man.

"What the hell do you want, Marcone?"

Few dare to speak to me like that. Then, he hugged me. I tried to figure out his ploy, tried to push him away. He didn't let me, and I slumped into him. Hendricks couldn't have gotten him here unscathed if Harry had been unwilling. "Why did you come?"

"Can't ask an easy one, John?" He was anxious, outside his comfort zone. Harry's comfort zone is narrower than a coffin. "I, you, why?"

He wouldn't believe compliments of his looks, and that was such a small part. My memory gone it had hit me hard. "You pursue the Right thing when all it gets you is pain." I've had to put down men that had gone through less, degenerate bullies enslaved by their appetites. My own upbringing, modest as it was, was much more ideal and look how that turned out.

"You've read my tombstone."

I had. I'd also looked into having Bianca's parting shot filled in and judged it too costly. I pulled away from him.

"Can't I live doing the right thing?" I looked at him, shocked. I was misunderstanding him. "I've got baggage." He kissed me.

It was sweet. This was insanity itself. "Harry, please. Don't."

"I miss being touched. It's a big risk, I've thought I was straight."

"Past tense?"

"Contrary to fact, possibly. I don't know. It is a risk. Are you willing to take a chance?"

Was I? Was I willing not to take it? I kissed him with all the promise and seduction I could fit against his closed lips. I was damned either way. "Apply the breaks whenever you need to. Don't try muscling through like you do." I hugged him, knowing how easily this could be lost.


End file.
